Violent (non)reciprocity: mimesis and anti-mimesis of conflict

Violence in its genesis is defined by René Girard as a purely human phenomenon, which is conditioned by the ultimate identity of the subjects, the non-recognition of which pushes them to establish a difference, which is impossible due to the illusory nature of the latter. Thus, the mimetic crisis (the crisis of differences), which is almost losing its discontinuity, reveals only a homogeneous form of violence, and it itself is endowed with hypostatic agency by Girard, which means that it’s impossible to overcome the current situation of looping mutual violence from within. The root of violence is what Girard defines as the mimesis of appropriation. The only way to cope with the destructive effects of the human mimetic nature is an individual rejection of violence by imitating a transcendent model unattainable to mimetic rivalry, which violates the principle of reciprocity of mimetism. Consequently, the heterogeneity of the subject necessary to get rid of striving to the extreme appears in Girardian theory only when the metaphysical dimension opens.

The author suggests a radical revision of the principles of mimetic theory. The main method of redefining the foundations of mimetic theory turns out to be its ontologization, which ultimately makes it possible to form a socio-political space for resolving the mimetic crisis and to show the possibility of an alternative to the logic of possession. Thus, during the reconstruction of the ontological basis of violence, it is revealed that it is inherent primarily in being itself as part of the mechanism for the production of being, and, consequently, it is neutral, which allows the author to propose a project of an immanent way out of striving to the extreme, by establishing the heterogeneity of both violence and the subject.